Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 5-6.

From time to time I have mentioned that some people believe that all of the books of the Old Testament were compiled, and maybe even written, after the Jews returned from Babylonian Exile.  And I have also from time to time highlighted reasons I think that is incorrect.  However, today’s passage suggests to me that the books of Chronicles were composed after the Exile.  In verse twenty-two of chapter five, after describing the conquest of Gilead, it says that those tribes occupied that land until the exile.  Then in verse twenty-six it mentions that those tribes were taken into exile by the Assyrians to certain specific lands “where they are to this day.”  Finally, earlier in verse seventeen the passage says that all of these people were entered into the genealogical records during the reign of Jotham king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel.  The reason I mentioned this last is because it suggests to me a reason why some of the listings are confusing: the records they were drawn from were old and hard to read in some places.  In addition, the records they used to compile this list had likely been recorded by different people at different times with different ideas about how the information should be written down.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.